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Universities Terrorized in US-ally ‘Ethiopia'
Written by admin on Şub 14th, 2010 |
A most devastating Press Release, revealing the excruciating practices of oppression and tyranny by the Tigray Abyssinian dictator Meles Zenawi, has been published a few days ago.
The international community has to demonstrate great concern and immediate reaction against the incredible Cemetery of Peoples – Abyssinia, a colonial relic state that has been fallaciously re-baptized ‘Ethiopia’. The UNESCO should particularly set up a Facts Examining Committee, and further investigate the subject, as similar practices are absolutely impermissible in our world.
Either nations and ethnic groups, like the Oromos, the Ogadenis, the Sidamas, the Afars, the Anuak, the Kambaatas, the Shekachos, the Kaffas, the Agaws, the Wolayitas and others, or religious minorities, like the Abyssinian Amhara and Tigray Muslims, have been ceaselessly terrorized, monstrously dehumanized, and viciously deprived of all their political, social, economic, educational, religious and cultural rights.
The following Press Release, signed by Mr. Hunde Dhugassa, Ex-President of Jimma University Students and Ethiopian Higher Learning Institutions Students Union, elucidates the details of just one type of Abyssinian oppressive method, and only in one place, namely Jimma University.
Jimma University has a website; to read the texts posted there, one gets the idea that everything is human, academic, modern, and even innovative and pioneering! For your to make the striking comparison, and take note of the contrast between falsehood and reality, we republish an excerpt from the Jimma University website’s home page text.
False Presentation of the Jimma University Realities
Jimma University is Ethiopia’s first innovative community oriented higher education institution committed to training of professionals in diverse fields of studies through community Based Educational strategies. The University is trying to meet societal expectations by producing competent, responsive and task-oriented professionals who are equipped with high quality problem solving skills. To achieve these goals, the university has desperately designed its programs integrating training, research and service.
http://www.ju.edu.et/index.php#
Truthful Presentation of the Jimma University Realities
Now, we publish the Press Release issued by the Jimma University Students and Ethiopian Higher Learning Institutions Students Union, leaving the conclusions to be drawn by every impartial and self-respected reader (http://www.oromoliberationfront.org/News/2007/University_jimmaa.htm?nclick_check=1).
Press Release issued by Mr. Hunde Dhugassa, Ex-President
Jimma University Students and Ethiopian Higher Learning Institutions Students Union
The trauma of the TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front)-led EPRDF government’s cruel and inhuman treatment of citizens dates back to its inception to power when they killed, torched, imprisoned and dismantled families under the guise of OLF (Oromo liberation front) supporters.
Then, over the past 15 years, TPLF followed the shot to hit and different methods of torching strategy to civilians raising the question of the right to self-determination of Oromo people. Â
Almost all schools in Oromiya at all levels have experienced the bloody hand of TPLF government at different times and in various places every year.
On the occasion of the student manifestations against the decision to transfer the Oromiya capital from Finfinne {Addis Ababa} to Adama alone, they have killed and imprisoned thousands; a decision for which they regretted later for the political benefit of getting the favour of the Oromo people in the post 2005 election. From Addis Ababa University alone, more than 350 Oromo students were fired from school; leaving other socio-economic, political and human issues aside, the ban of Macha and Tulema Oromo NGO was quite indicative.
Oromo’s in different universities of Ethiopia are facing serious challenges just for being Oromo; killings, imprisonment, torturing, graduation denial – and all happens without the observance of the slightest procedure of law. Total dismissal is also one of the commonly taken measures until the day I left the university in July 2007.
There is no academic spirit and freedom in the universities of Ethiopia for other oppressed nations either; these practices are implemented against all other students who belong to Ethiopia’s oppressed nations.
Forced Membership to the Traitors’ Group OPDO
Forced membership in the ‘homemade’ OPDO (Oromo People’s Democratic organization) is a hot issue now in almost all universities, as the governmental authorities hope that like this they will reduce the support of OLF among the students’ community.
Denial to forced membership in OPDO automatically results in accusation/tag of OLF member which triggers by itself its own pack of inhuman treatment that can end up in incommunicado and extrajudicial killings; the least that can happen is permanent impossibility of employment after the graduation. In a country like Ethiopia, this can be a most serious punishment indeed.
‘Ethiopian’ ‘universities’ plagued with Abyssinian Secret Services’ Agents.
They implement an evil strategy of creating a conflict among students of different oppressed nations, hoping lack of unity in the Student Community will minimize the questions and the pressure the students pose on the undemocratic government in one voice.
In the time of my presidency, I have tried to expose the deceptive and cruel nature of this government to influential ambassadors and other Human Rights organizations in Finfinne (Addis Ababa) on different occasions. I have also strongly criticized different unlawful acts perpetrated by the government, acting in different ways, involving strongly phrased letters sent to various authorities.
In return, I received very devastating response messages, and warning at the gunpoint from securities more than three (3) times, even when I was in Jimma, Awasa and Gondor universities for official purpose.
After my graduation, although they had understood that I did not belong to any group, they fiercely persecuted me, under the double pretext, namely that I had published an Oromo Graduation Bulletin – 2007 (which was banned by the TPLF government) and that I had endorsed in my research paper the Right to Secession in Ethiopia, more specifically for the case of Oromiya. My paper exposed the realities that they want to deliberately hide, and that is why they considered both points as pertaining to OLF agenda, while the desire for secession is overwhelming among the Oromo people at large.
However, the policy they applied in my case targeted my contribution to Ethiopian in general and to Oromiya in particular. In fact, their desire is practically impossible to be materialized, as I will go for it, even if it is not in the same way.
After this, and following other practices of severe persecution perpetrated by the TPLF government against me, I decided to fight this government joining the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in order to bring the democratic option to the people of Oromo and the other oppressed nations of Ethiopia; this was the natural consequence of the fact that I have been denied the right to work on the idea I believe for my own people, in my country.
I call upon the African Union, the European Union, as well as Human Right organizations and International Mass Media across the planet, to demonstrate a real concern for the harassment of Oromos and the other oppressed Nations of Ethiopia where are still located the headquarters of the African Union.
No matter how long the Night is, the Day will surely come!
http://www.hotsohbet.net/universities-terrorized-in-us-ally-ethiop.htm
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Two reasons why Abeshas are Unity freaks, Oromo pro Liberty
On Sat Feb 13, 2010
Two reasons why Abeshas are Unity freaks, Oromo pro Liberty
Abeshas are crying for "Ethiopianity" aka Ethiopian unitarity and demonize "Ethnocentricity"! But both "Ethiopianity" and "Ethnocentricity" they talk about are extreme concepts,which bring no solution to the troubled Horn of Africa. The panacea for the Horn's problem is actually the middle way aka 'Federality/ Unionity' of the nations in the empire/horn.
Crying for "Ethiopianity" disregarding the LIBERTY of nations is not a way forward. Oromos nowadays know why Abeshas cry for "Ethiopianity". The two important factors to be considered as a reason why Abeshas cry for Unity and why Oromos want Liberty are put in the following short essay. For Amharas it is about both language advantage and lucrative business. For Tegarus it is mainly about lucrative unity.
I) Language:
Only Abeshas tend to oppose the well accepted and respected Language Based Federation (LBF) aka genuine "ethnic" federalism. It is not the will of Oromo nation and others' wish except Amhara's to advocate for Geography Based Federation (GBF), the euphemy for getting rid of Oromia. Specially Amharas do it, for they know the advantage they get based on the fact that Amharinya being the working language of the federation.
Just let's stop and think other wise: let's say Afaan is the working language of the federation instead of Amharinya. Do Abeshas know who will favour Geography Based federation? It will be Oromos, not Amharas! What I wanted to tell them here is that every nation favours what is to its advantage. Now in reality Geography Based Federation (GBF) is more advantegious for Amharas. It favours amharanization of others in to the melting pot, i.e in to pool of Amharinya speakers. I being Oromo now favour language based federation for it serves our interest (protects us from the on going amharanization).
But if Abeshas agree to accept Afaan Oromo instead of Amharinya as a federal working language, I will be the best advocator of geography based federation. It should be known that I am not talking about making both Afaan Oromo and Amharinya a working language of the federation as UDJ/G-7 and co try to make us believe. With this UDJ/G-7's maneuver Amharaswant that Amharinya be the working language of also Oromia and other regions, which they do not have now! I am telling that, let's limit Amharinya in only Amhara region and make Afaan Oromo the only NATIONAL language of Ethiopia. This meanse the future
oromonization of others in to the pool of Afaan Oromo speakers, instead of amharanization.
I am sure then Amharas will be the supporters of language based federalism to protect them selves from being oromonized, while I as Oromo will be the best supporter of geography based federalism!! So to test Amharas, whether they unconditionally cry for unitarist Ethiopia, let's demote Amharinya to local language and promote Afaan Oromo to federal language!
II) Lucrative:
What ever we preach, be it unity, self-determination or independence, primarily it is for the sake of economical benefit!! Unity, self-determination and independence per se are not the highest moral goods. They are the meanses to the END, to what ever is good in general and to the economical gain in particular for those who preach them respectively. To comprehend this, it would be good to look at the following interesting and simple analogy.
Let's assume a personified Tigray does have only 10 Birr, Amara 100 and Oromia 1000. Now these three persons try to agree on the way how to live together. There are three options:
1) They can live under the condition that one robing the others if he has pistol (power).
2) All live together united in which they use commonly and share equally what they do have in common (1110 birr: each taking 370).
3) They live separated and each using his own possesion (Tigray uses his 10 Birr, Amara his 100 and Oromia his 1000).
Any way, who of these three tends to robe the others, who advertises unity and who wants separate life? No question the person Tigray if he has pistol in his hand robes the other two, who do have more money than what he does have. The person Amhara preaches unity, because he knows he gets more (which is 370 instead of his only 100) if unity is successfull.
The person Oromia tries to resist both to hinder the lose he suffers (which is totally 630 Birr: 360 to Tigrai and 270 to Amara). So he rejects unity and struggles against roberry. He knows how much he looses!
So we now can see why Tegarus came with gun and loot what ever they can from Amhara, Oromia and other national areas. We also understand why Amaras untiredly cry for unity, as if unity per se is an absolute moral virtue. It is not the unity what is important for them, but the "270 (370 - 100) birr" they gain if they live in unity with Oromia and other rich areas.
That explains their schizophrenic character in which they on one side persistently "request" that Tegarus better declare their independence and go to their "dry land", whereas on other side they persistently cry against the possible "secession" of Oromia. Tegarus' motto towards Oromia is "becebexa wede asharo texega" and that of Amaras' is "cibix qolo yizeh wede asharo texega!!" They came to us with their meager resource and consume massively our abandont resource (asharo).
That is why, it is understandable if Oromos reject the Abesha type of unity in which the grand children of Minilik and Yohanes rule the whole corner of Oromia and consume the whole "asharo" ofOromo people. Only fool Oromos accept such unity and tolerate such robbery.
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17989#p98914
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End the Oromo Genocide in Ethiopia! Stop the Amhara - Tigray Agenda of Kushitic Mass Extermination! -
By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
In a previous article titled ‘Amhara, Tigray Tyrants Guilty of Racist Discrimination Against Oromos in Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia)’ (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/1354520), I republished part of an overwhelming Memorandum submitted by the Oromo Parliamentarians Council to many international organizations, governmental bodies, diplomatic representations, political parties, cultural associations, and NGOs.
Under the original title ‘Complaint Statement on Racial Discrimination of Political, Social and Cultural Rights of Oromos in Ethiopia’, the text makes state of an appalling situation that people allover the world simply cannot accept without being at the same time deprived of their own humanity.
In the first article, I republished the following parts of the devastating Memorandum: ‘Introduction’, ‘Background’, ‘Ethiopia: Land of Silence and Human Rights Violations’, and ‘Ethiopia: one ethnic minority manipulating majority’.
In the present article, I will republish further parts of the Memorandum that makes clear that tolerance of, or indifference toward, the racist and criminal Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) Abyssinian elites is not an option for the civilized world.
The Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) Abyssinian gangsters represent less than 18% of the country’s population, and after having subjugated many Eastern African Kushitic and Nilo-Saharan nations (Oromos, Ogadenis, Afars, Sidamas. Kambaatas, Shekachos, Kaffas, Gedeos, Wolayitas, Hadiyas, Anuak, Nuer and Gumuz) and occupied their lands, they carried out an unprecedented, systematic, covered but multifaceted, cultural and physical, genocide against all of the aforementioned nations.
The unrepresentative, ethnic-based, pseudo-diplomats of Abyssinia, when supposedly representing Abyssinia (fallaciously renamed ‘Ethiopia’), promote the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) tribal agenda of East African mass extermination and facilitate the methodic genocidal plans that have long been undertaken by the Amhara – Tigray (Semitic Abyssinian) tyrants against all of the aforementioned Kushitic and Nilo-Saharan nations.
This inhuman situation, which is the daily reality lived by more than 65 million people in the colonial state of Abyssinia, strikingly contradicts speeches full of democratic promises and lectures full of economic pledges hypocritically made by the administrations of Western capitals to either Europeans or Africans.
It is therefore imperative that European and North American administrations remove their support offered to the said racist and criminal tribes and setup a UN-sponsored investigation committee that would lead to cruel gangster Meles Zenawi’s impeachment and to Ethiopia’s ultimate and most demanded demolition and dismemberment.
In forthcoming articles, I will complete the republication of the extraordinary Memorandum.
Ethiopia: Land of Silene and Starvation
Malas Zenawi uses famine as bullet to killed poor people.
A famine is growing across Ethiopia, but the government is clamping down on information - even ejecting aid agencies that could help bring aid for fear of provoking unrest and losing their grip on power; Finally, after months of mystifying delays, the government announced in late October that 6.2 million people needed emergency aid; but the realty is nowadays 12 to 18 million people needs aid.
Meles Zenawi is responsible for unlawful war against Eritrea and Somalia which the country lost 120 thousands life and scours economy which bring greet inflation in Ethiopia for first time.
Meles Zenawi state terrorist still not ready to accept the international borders committee dissection for peace with Eritrea. Meles straggle sanctions on Eritrea through his USA friends. Any sanctions on Eritrea automatically can bring destabilization and collapses of the Horn African states
Political Rights
The FDRE constitution of Article 38 grants the right to Vote and to be elected. It provides citizens the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through generally free and fair elections held on the basis of universal suffrage; however, violence and intimidation of voters and elected parliamentarian were observed.
In practice, the EPRDF ruling party dominated the government.
Elected parliamentarians and members of other political parties were subjected to executions or other acts of inhumanity. For instance, Mr. Adane was an elected member of the Ethiopian parliament representing the Oromo Peoples Congress Party (OPC). A week after the election of may 2005 a police shot and killed Mr. Adane in Arsi Negele town.
The Oromo people have used their constitutional rights to elect the person or party they wanted. However, the ruling party EPRDF is being dominated by the Tigrean Peoples Liberation (TPLF) did not want to see the strong opposition in the government. That is why they killed Mr. Adane who represented the people who elected him.
Police began harassing the parliamentarians after a February 2006 regional council meeting. There were no developments in the 2006 beatings of one regional parliamentarian of the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement (OFDM) and five of the Oromo National Congress.
We MPE faced all types of torches, imprisonment, confiscations of property and so much more due to our commitment to the rule of law in the country. As we were not allowed to speak in the parliament, except sitting and listening to the ruling party agenda and observing the so-called majority vote approval of the laws we tried to demonstrated out biggest pain by tying our mouth with cloth before the delegates of all countries, which did nothing but enhanced our persecution.
In due time, many were imprisoned without due process of the law, in history of Ethiopia 11 MPs of Oromo national origin left the country, after they faced all unbelievable persecution in their life including their families and friends .
1. MP. Dr. Getachew Jigi
2. MP Mr. Abiyot Kebede
3. MP. Mr. Teshome Bedasa
4. MP. Mr. Akasa Kisy
5. MP. Mr. Chala Bekele
6. MP. Mr. Siraji Husen
7. MP. Mr. Tafara Lagasa
8. MP. Mr. Girma Chala
9. MP. Mr. Lebeta Fufa
10. RMP. Ms Sara Mamo
11. Mr. Gezehny Bekel
On September 13, 2007, police beat regional parliamentarian Wegayehu Dejene of Me’ea District, Oromia Region, and his family members. Wegayehu filed several complaints with local authorities, but no action had been taken till now.
Ms. Biraanee Dhufeeraa, Ms. Isqeel Gamada and Mr. Asfaw Banti were students supporters of Oromo Federalist Movement (OFDM) and were killed at Kiltu Karra district of Western Wollega Zone of Oromia region on 21 December 2005 by the security forces.
The Oromo Parliamentarian Council is informed that militias’ head of the district, named Waagari Jigi, ordered the killing of the OFDM supporters and wounded many others students like Damaye Olana, Abdi Umataa, Ifee Mardasa in Kiltu Karra district.
Oromo students are discriminately killed in Inangoo 2, Bojii Dirmaji 2, Gimbi 5, Xiquri Inxini 2, Chalia 3, Ambo 1; and in Jaldu district 3 students were killed in cold-blooded murder.
There was no investigation into the 2006 killing by federal police of 15 demonstrators in the East Wallega zone, Guduru District.
Until now the Oromo students in all universities are targeted for disappearing and killing.
During the year some political leaders, including federal and regional MPs, were discouraged from traveling to their constituencies to meet with supporters, although others visited constituents without incident.
For example, OFDM chairman Bulcha Demeksa was persuaded not to visit his constituency in Wellega district, Oromiya Region, because the government told him his security could not be guaranteed. Some local officials blocked some opposition MPs’ access to their constituencies, arguing that as federal MPs, they had no reason to visit.
In February 2008, before the local elections, ruling party cadres detained an opposition member and candidate for seven times during the 15 days following his registration as a district candidate in Western Oromia. They alternately threatened to fire him from his teaching job, relocate him to a rural site, and kill him and his children.
On March 2, 2008, the opposition Oromo People’s Congress party reported that Degaga Gebissa, a party member from Meta-Robi District, Oromia Region, was taken from his house by police, shot and killed. Police allegedly refused to allow an autopsy or to provide any information to OPC party officials.
On March 9, 2008 police and local officials beat federal parliamentarian Gutu Mulisa while he campaigned for the OPC in Elfeta District, Oromia Region. Gutu filed a complaint with Elfeta District Police. At year's end, the case was still pending.
In January 2007, the Ethiopian government militias collected many Oromos from different parts of Oromia, arrested them, and transferred them in an illegal prison camp known as China camp, in Meso, in Hararge zone. The people arrested were suspected of being members or supporters of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). OPC learned that many of these political prisoners were killed on the hill called Gara Sufi, close to Meso town, in east Oromia.
About 20 Oromos were killed on the Gara Sufi, and were thrown for hyenas to be eaten. The Voice America Radio Afaan Oromo Program made an interview with families of the victims. (Audio clips from VOA can be supplied)
Ayisha Ali, Kadijjaa Usuman is the wife of the late Obbo Ahmed Mohhamed Kuree from Mi’essoo. She and her late husband have nine children - eight girls and one boy whom she just stopped breastfeeding.
The TPLF government is also active in refuge murder in the wider Horn of Africa area. The Ethiopian security forces, with the support of Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Djibouti governments, deport Oromo political refugees also harassing them in the abroad. In 2008 Somalia’s Puntland (Bossasso) 65 Oromos were killed, 100 wounded, and 250 homes were burned down by Ethiopia army.
The Meles Zenawi Government to change the people’s image uses all methods of conflicts, civil or international, regular or irregular. With the TPLF, regime-instigated conflict between Guji Oromos and Konsos took place, and 40 people lost their lifes, dozens were wounded, and properties were destroyed.
In the historic place of Madda Walabu, many Oromos have lost their historical territories and hundreds lost their lives. In Messo and many other places, a scheme was prepared by the government to involve Oromos and Somalis in conflict, and in the process many civilian Oromos were murdered by the well armed groups.
In Wondo Genet more than 40 Oromos were killed by raids.
Between May 17 and 19, 2008, the Gumuz militias of the regional state of Benshangul/Gumuz, backed by TPLF regime, mercilessly and with no pretext attacked numerous unarmed Oromo civilians, burnt down their houses, indiscriminately killed and amputated elders and children, thus forcing thousands to flee their homes.
According to information received, about 400 people have been killed in the process; 65 people were killed in Haroo Waataa village of Saasiggaa alone. No less than 115 dead bodies were found and buried in just four mass graves. The remaining bodies are either burned by the perpetrators or eaten by wild dogs and hyenas. Over 12000 people have left their homes and camped in Naqamtee town and at the surroundings of a primary school, in the Saasiggaa district.
As of 30/10/2008, the TPLF-led Ethiopian government has put under unlawful detention more than 100 Oromos in different cities of Oromiya, including the capital city, under the notorious pretext of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).
It is the high time for all international and governmental bodies worldwide to interfere in the unprecedented Human Rights violations perpetrated against the Oromo Nation, and thus secure their constitutional freedom.
(To be continued)
Note
You can contact the Oromo Parliamentarians Council here:
Gumii Paarlaamaa Oromoo (GPO),
Oromo Parliamentarians Council (OPC)
Sint-Jobstraat 43, 2060 Antwerpen, Belgium
Tel. 00 32 488 47 93 60
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.oromoparliamentarians.org
Note
Picture: the administrative provinces of the colonial state of Abyssinia do not represent the real borders of the subjugated Afar, Oromo, Ogadenis and Southern nations; they only represent the villainous and criminal desire of the ruling racist Amharas to create a fake Amhara region enlarged in order to incorporate lands that do not belong to them. The real Amhara state that will be left after the secession of Ogaden, Afar, Oromos and the Southern peoples will have less than half the size of the fake province. Following the dissolution of Abyssinia, the Tigray region will be incorporated in Eritrea:
http://www.buzzle.com/img/articleImages/343901-50138-59.jpg
Complaint Statement on Racial Discrimination of Political, Social and Cultural Rights of Oromos in Ethiopia - Oromo Parliamentarians Council
About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 52, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.
http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard/article.php?id=199753&act=print
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Oromos, Ogadenis, Sidamas, Afars, and Berbers: Coordination of Liberation Movements
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
February 11, 2010
North Africa should form one state, a sizeable Hamitic – Kushitic Confederation spanning from Mauritania to Tanzania. The rise of an immense state comprising of Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, Tunisia, Niger, Libya, Chad, Sudan, Oromia, Afar Land, Ogaden, Sidama Land, Somalia, and large parts of Kenya down to the Tanzanian coast may be the nightmare of the European and the American colonialists, but it is an absolutely feasible project.
All the populations of the aforementioned North African Lebensraum are of the same ethnic – linguistic – cultural – religious background. East Africa´s Kushites are affiliated to the wider Hamitic family that comprises the Tuareg, the Berbers, the Hausa and the Fulani speaking nations. With the exception of the equally divided and persecuted Nilo-Saharan nations (Nuer, Dinka, Luo,Nuba, Anuak, Nubians) and of the Abyssinians (the Amharas and the Tigrays who rule tyrannically the fake state of Ethiopia, having subjugated many East African Kushitic nations), who are of Yemenite, Semitic origin, all the North Africans, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, belong to the persecuted Hamitic family of nations. Islam may be predominant among them, but a galaxy of other, traditional African religions have survived down to our times without any problems of coexistence with the indigenous, tolerant and peaceful Muslims, except those created by the colonial French and English, and more recently the US.
Persecuted as they all are, East Africa´s Kushites and the Berbers of the wider Atlas region must forge a coalition and thus better coordinate their struggle against the tyrannies imposed by the European racists, against the pseudo-states formed by the colonialists and their lackeys, and against the historical falsification of the African past and present.
Interconnectedness of the various liberation fronts and movements matters greatly in this regard. In several forthcoming articles, I will expand on both political and historical levels; in the present article, to help East Africa´s Kushites become better acquainted with their Northwest African brethren, I republish an illuminating article that presents in a rather objective way the troubles of the Berbers in Algeria over the past three decades.
Algeria´s Amnesty and the Kabylia Question
Berber Boycott in Restive Region Signals Continued Struggle
http://ww4report.com/node/1235
by Zighen Aym
After more 200,000 people dead, 10,000 missing and over 100,000 displaced, the North African country of Algeria held a referendum vote on a reconciliation peace plan on Sept. 29, 2005. The plan—officially dubbed the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation—was proposed by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a political oligarch from the country's first post-independence government. It not only grants amnesty to thousands Islamic militants but also exonerates the security forces of any of human rights abuses committed during the last fifteen years.
Although Algerian government official reports indicated that an overwhelming 97% of the voters approved the plan, many independent news sources failed to back up these numbers. Instead, they reported the trickling of voters to the polling places, contradicting the 80% participation claimed by the Interior Minister, Nourredine Zerhouni, a former ambassador to the USA.
But there is a cultural and regional dimension to the question which has generally been overlooked in media accounts—that of the Berbers, who make up some 30% of Algeria's population. The Berbers, known to be the first inhabitants of North Africa, are ethnically and linguistically distinct from the Arab majority, and have been carrying out an intermittent civil struggle for the past generation for official recognition of their cultural rights. Their heartland in Algeria is Kabylia, a mountainous region located about 60 miles west of the capital. Its main cities are Tizi-Ouzou and Bejaia, on the Mediterranean coast. The inhabitants call themselves Kabyls, and their identity has been perceived as a threat by both sides in the civil war that tore Algeria apart in the 1990s: the military regime and the Islamist guerillas alike.
Hocine Ait-Ahmed, the leader of the Front of the Socialist Forces (FFS), a Berber-based opposition party, himself a veteran revolutionary leader from the war of independence from France, denounced the vote as a "Totalitarian Tusnami," and criticized France for claiming the vote was democratic.
Said Saadi, the leader of the other Berber-based political party, the Rally for Democracy and Culture (RCD) called the vote a farce from the beginning to the end. He charged that the vote results were multiplied by four and that electoral fraud has been virtually continuous in Algeria since independence in 1962. He also charged that in Kabylia people from other regions were bussed in to local schools where the voting was taking place to inflate the poll return numbers from.
In total three parties—the FFS, RCD, and Movement for Society and Democracy (MSD)—called for the boycott of the referendum. They accused the president of seeking to consolidate a new dictatorship, and a future plebiscite that will allow him to modify the constitution and remain in power for a third time after 2009. As a result of the boycott, the abstentionism rate was near 90% in Kabylia. Participation levels as low as 7% in Bejaia and 9% in Tizi-Ouzou were reported in the French newspaper Liberation.
In France, where more 700,000 Algerians are eligible to vote, Khaled Sid Mohand of Free Speech Radio News reported no rush to cast ballots. He interviewed an Algerian resident who provided an explanation for the vote: "To forgive the Power in general." The Power—le Pouvoir—is popular shorthand for the ruling political elite in Algiers, generally ensconced in the military.
The question also remains of whether the vote for the charter will protect Algeria's rulers and generals from being judged by International Tribunal at The Hague in the years to come.
Several independent newspapers in Algeria called for public debate on the matter. In contrast, government-owned newspapers, TV stations and airwaves were in full campaign swing for the Yes vote. And so was the president's political alliance, made up of the long-ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), the National Rally for Democracy (RND, an offshoot of the FLN which won a parliamentary majority in 1997, three months after its creation), and the Society of Peace Movement (MSP), a pro-government Islamist party.
Opposition party members and human rights groups denounced the restraints on public debate of the pending charter. The National Association of the Families of the Disappeared was not allowed to campaign against the charter in Algeria and was therefore forced to do so in France. The French paper Liberation reported that a 75 year-old man, Mouloud Arab, the father of one of the disappeared, was arrested and accused of "distributing illegal tracts" for hanging out a brochure that was critical of the charter.
Since the vote, the Algerian government has continued its intimidation and attempts to silence the families of the disappeared, who have been protesting to demand accountability since 1998. The Oran office of SOS Disparus, another advocacy group for the families of the "disappeared," was reportedly searched Sept. 17 by three police officers who did not show a search warrant. The organization's leader Fatima Nekrouf has been receiving threatening phone calls warning her to leave Algeria.
Confusing Voters
The vote comes six years after the Project for Civil Concord, also reported to have been approved by 98% of the voters, which gave partial amnesty to the members of armed Islamic groups. This 2005 charter seals it the amnesty definitively. In addition, under the new charter any person or group attempting to bring charges for crimes committed by either fundamentalists groups or the security forces can henceforth be accused of "threatening peace and national security." The penalties for this crime are to be determined by legislation.
When interviewed by reporters, citizens seem to have misunderstood what they were voting for; many apparently believed they were being asked simply whether they were for or against peace. The details of the charter were generally not addressed in the public debate permitted by the government.
The charter seems to close a dark chapter of Algeria's post-independence history. But it also asks the still-grieving families to forgive the murders of their family members, the rapes of their daughters and mothers, andthe destruction of their lives. In contrast to the situation in post-apartheid South Africa, the perpetrators have not come forward to ask for forgiveness; they remain unknown and will remain unknown. They are effectively vindicated by being granted immunity.
Critics ask what would prevent them from repeating the same actions in the future? To forgive, it is necessary to know whom you are forgiving. The referendum sought to sweep under the rug the barbaric atrocities committed against Algerian civilians over the past 15 years. Not returning bodies of the disappeared to their families does not bring their grief to an end. It just prolongs it.
Kabylia and its Challenges
Since the "Berber Spring" of 1980, the year the Amazigh (Berber) culture became a popular issue in Kabylia, several obstacles to open political life in the region have been removed. Long gone are the days when the gendarmerie—the paramiltary rural police—could enter a high school and look for Berber inscriptions inside students' notebooks as they did in 1976 at the Technical High School of Dellys, a coastal city north of Tizi-Ouzou. Several of my follow students were arrested that day. One of them we never saw again.
Long gone are the days when people were arrested for owning Berber-language books, which were only printed at a Berber Academy in Paris. This happened to my neighbor, Ferhat S., in my village in Kabylia. He jumped from the moving military jeep, and got away. He hid for a week in a nearby orchard. His grand-father, a village elder, contacted the gendarmes and promised that his grandson would stop reading or writing in the Berber language. When Ferhat showed up a few days later, his face and arms were covered with wounds and scratches, probably by his fall from the moving jeep onto the gravel road.
The Movement for Berber Culture (MCB), which started out as an underground movement in the early 1970s, was brought into the open with the events of 1980—which began in April with widespread protests after the government prevented Mouloud Mammeri, a renowned Algerian anthropologist and writer, from travelling to Kabylia to deliver a lecture on ancient Amazigh poetry at Tizi Ouzou University. He was stopped at a roadblock and sent back to Algiers.
The political opening in Algeria in the early 1990s saw the creation of the RCD among other opposition parties. But internal divisions weakened the movement for cultural rights in Kabylia. Two RCD leaders affiliated with the Berber Cultural Movement (MCB), Ferhat M'henni and Said Saadi, proclaimed the RCD to be the sole representative of the Berber demands. This was contested by Hocine Ait Ahmed's Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), Algeria's oldest opposition party, which broke with the regime shortly after independence. The MCB split into two groups in 1992. The RCD sympathizers in the MCB formed a faction called the MCB-National Coordination. Those politically close to the FFS, formed the MCB-National Commissions. Four years later, Ferhat M'henni left the RCD and created his own MCB faction known as the MCB-National Rally.
Since then, Kabylia has endured series of a year-long of school boycott in 1994, in protest of the government's refusal to recognize the Berber language, Tamazight, as one of Algeria's official languages. In 1998 came the assassination of Lounes Matoub, the legendary Berber folksinger who had become a symbol of the cultural struggle—nobody was brought to justice for the slaying, and it remains uncertain if it was carried out by government agents or Islamist guerillas, who had kidnapped him four years earlier. Finally, April 2001 saw a sequel of the events of Berber Spring, with a wave of protests following the death of a Berber youth at the hands of the police in Tizi-Ouzou. Again, the protests were harshly put down. This time, the death toll was more than 100 dead and over 3,000 injured.
These events saw the birth of a popular movement called the Arouch—the plural of Arch, a Berber word referring to a traditional Kabyle form of village-based democratic assemblies. The revitalized movement also saw the drafting of the 15-demand El Kseur Platform. These demands included the full withdrawal of the gendarmerie from Kabylia, compensation to the victims for the behavior of the authorities during the protest marches, awarding the status of "martyr" to the victims, clarification about the crimes committed by the security forces during these events, the drawing up of a regional program for the economic and social development of Kabylia, and official recognition of the Tamazight language.
Under international pressure for the killing of unarmed demonstrators, the government requested an investigation by Mohand Issad, an Algerian Berber who is a respected expert in international law. When he handed in his report, Professor Issad found that the security forces' version of the deaths were "not satisfactory," and blamed the gendarmerie units for their use of excessive force against the peaceful demonstrations. No charges were brought against any member of the security forces; instead the government proposed financial indemnities to the families of victims and detainees.
Economic Difficulties and Political Games
The increase of poverty in Kabylia adds to discontent over the Algerian government's continued refusal to deal with the Berber cultural and language demands. As a result, Kabylia seems set to remain a permanent power-keg that can be easily lit by security agents—serving the political games played the nomenclature in power in Algiers. Unfortunately, the RCD, the FFS, and the recently-created Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylia, headed by Ferhat M'henni, instead of uniting forces, seem to fall into that game.
In the past, when the FFS would participate in legislative, local or presidential elections, the RCD would boycott. And when the RCD would participate, the FFS would boycott—as if they were getting asynchronous orders from the higher-ups in the le Pouvoir in Algiers.
President Boutelfika made Tamazight a "national" language in 2002, allowing its use in media and broadcasting, but refuses to cede to demands that it become an "official" langauge, equal with Arabic, allowing its use in public education. The fifteen demands have yet to be fulfilled. The economic situation in Kabylia has deteriorated, and with the lack of employment, many young Kabyls continue to seek opportunities outside of their native region. France, Canada, and the USA became their dream destination. In France, the number of illegal young Kabyls has been estimated at 100,000. Many perceive that Kabylia is being purposely deconstructed, and its strong community ties torn by this surge in emigration.
During a visit to Algeria in the summer of 2002, I was impressed by a modest youth center that had opened a year earlier in my hometown. I visited the center the next day and found about ten children in a classroom attending a Tamazight summer class. On the second floor, I saw a rehearsal of a theater play in Tamazight. The next day, the chorus group improvised a performance and sang several songs about exile that brought tears to my eyes. When I returned two years later, the building was still there—but the center had closed. Instead, I learned that several wine and beer places had opened, and alcohol was widely available for consumption. The antagonism between the FFS and RCD had entered village life, pitting fellow villagers against each other.
Now, poverty, alcohol, and emigration all add to Kabylia's troubles. Since the official return to democracy in 1995 after three years of direct military rule, the Algerian government has held 11 elections and plebiscites--but the same political elite centered around the military has held power for the last 40 years. The new charter reinforces this entrenched system rather than breaking it up. Despite the government's claims, it represents progress neither for Kabylia's special dilemmas or Algerian democracy generally.
Resources:
"North African Berbers and Kabylia's Berber Citizens' Movement," by Mohand
Salah Tahi, Tamazgha.fr, June 2001
http://www.tamazgha.fr/article.php3?id_article=225,
"'The Rebel is Dead. Long Live the Martyr!': Kabyle Mobilization and the
Assassination of Lounès Matoub," by Paul A. Silverstein, Middle East
Report, Fall 1998
http://www.merip.org/mer/mer208/silver.htm
"Armed Violence and Poverty in Kabylia," by Meredith Turshen, Centre for
International Cooperation and Security, November 2004
http://info.brad.ac.uk/acad/cics/publications/avpi/AVPI_Algeria.pdf
Algeria Watch on threats against SOS Disparus
http://www.algeria-watch.de/fr/mrv/mrvrepr/membres_sos_disparus.htm
Related story, this issue:
"Algeria: Will Referendum Wipe the Slate Clean?" by Rene Wadlow
http://www.ww4report.com/node/1236
From our weblog:
Al-Qaeda announces Algeria franchise
http://ww4report.com/node/520
See also our review of Zighen Aym's book, Still Moments: A Story About Faded Dreams & Forbidden Pictures
http://www.ww4report.com/node/753
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/printFriendly/141186
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